Bertrand Russell … and accessibility

Camden is rethinking our local statues.We were asked to think about some of the statues – and also think what we would truly like to commemorate.I couldnt go to the first session as the venue is not accessible.So that’s my first idea: get accessible! Lets make venues accessible – and then commemorate accessibility! We focussed on …

See more

(Un)forgotten flora

small flowering lemon tree

Francis Annagu — project creator, documentary photographer and creative writer (based in Nigeria) invited participants to take part in creating a new work for online exhibition (on Co-iki’s website) under the “Creativity from HOME” experimental residency curated by Co-iki. I’m included with my thoughts on lemons and oaks:https://carolinemawer.com/lemons-oaks-and-the-wood-wide-web/https://carolinemawer.com/lemon-trees-citrus-limon-and-limu-shirin/https://carolinemawer.com/quercus-brantii-the-west-asian-oak/I wrote of how Living in a big …

See more

Life, Interrupted: 14 Sept-14 Oct

grid of thumbnails of submissions from artist in group exhibition

I got a very generous share of the time at the opening event of this digital group exhibition at the Socially Engaged Art Salon, Brighton. Theres more from all the other artists here: https://www.seasbrighton.org/life-interrupted-gallery And more on my own submission here: https://www.seasbrighton.org/post/life-interrupted-caroline-mawer

Deep sea diving … in a wheelchair

Sue Austin scuba diving in her electric wheelchair. Image: Guardian

Sue Austin goes deep sea diving … in her wheelchair. She explains in a TED talk how she experienced the very negative stereotypes linked to wheelchairs, and thought how it might be to juxtapose these with the excitement of scuba-diving. Her NHS electric wheelchair now gives her the “freedom to move in 360 degrees of …

See more

And suddenly I disappear

And Suddenly I Disappear. Some of the cast. Image: Guardian

When I saw And Suddenly I Disappear,  it felt that, suddenly, there was actually a chance that I might personally appear. Not definitely. I still don’t know where. But at least now there’s a chance. For maybe a chance appearance. Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU for that to Kaite O Reilly and the whole splendid ensemble! Kaite explores …

See more

Shakespeare Incarnate

Tom Shakespeare by Lucy Jones. https://farmerofthoughts.co.uk/

Incarnate is a triptych: a conversation between Tom Shakespeare and some of the great works from the Renaissance to the modern era. It focuses on the theme of human embodiment. Incarnate is Shakespeare’s largest art work. It was inspired by the Gothic Nightmares exhibition at Tate Britain. Here it is in (a poor copy – but …

See more

Memory Palace

In the Mind of the Beholder. Gilbert and George. Seen in White Cube Memory Palace 2018

I was in Bermondsey and so grabbed the chance to have a look at the Memory Palace in the White Cube. The accompanying booklet tells me that “memory defines us”. And that art is “a powerful medium for stories missing from history’s official record”. Three of the items felt especially relevant to my current work …

See more

Bosch, strawberries, and high fashion

Detail from Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights: one of many strawberry symbolising the pleasure of forbidden fruit

I always learn something from the regular Sotheby’s Selects emails. This month the focus is on Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights c.1490-1505. Here, I’m adding a little to Sotheby’s excellent summary. This reminds us that Bosch’ triptych starts closed to display the third day of the Biblical formation of the earth . The left wing …

See more

Dorothea Lange and the Politics of Seeing

Barbican exhibitions of Dorothea Lange and Vanessa Winship 2018

I was excited to go to the Barbican exhibitions of Dorothea Lange and Vanessa Winship‘s photography. But what I found out is the Politics of Seeing can be just as rotten as any other Politics. Lange has been described as “principled .., a heroine of the lens“. After her most famous photo, Migrant Mother, was …

See more

Looking round corners with Black mirrors

This gazing ball is one of those black mirrors that tempt you into looking off to the side, at the unseen and unseeable. Find out more in my Birkbeck blog on walking around a black hole.

What tremendously thoughtful fun I had meandering round Birkbeck with a black mirror, gazing into a fairy ball!  Sheila Ghelani had designed our route by placing one of the mirrors she’d created onto a map: we were going to meander around the black hole thus created. Decked out with palm-size pebbles of mirrors in black …

See more